Upvote This: Reddit Users Are Writing a Law to Protect the Internet

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February 21, 2012

sarahlee310:

novenator:

Redditors are well known for posting memes, self-referencing jokes and collecting upvotes and karma. But writing legislation to protect the Internet? That’s something new, and it’s happening at “r/fia,” a Reddit community that’s writing the Free Internet Act, or FIA.

[…]

“We’re aiming to create a piece of legislation that’s international and that promotes Internet freedom that prevents bills such as SOPA and ACTA,” says Downing_Street_Cat.

The current draft reads like a cross between a congressional bill and an international treaty.

FIA calls for protecting the Internet against government censorship and protecting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and users from being held liable for hosting or viewing copyrighted content without their knowledge. It demands network neutrality, while also calling for users to receive notification before data is removed from “web pages or cloud storage.”

After those provisions, which sound like they could be found in domestic legislation, FIA gets international. It states that “laws of individual countries (who have signed this treaty) shall not be applicable to the Internet,” and “no country shall have reigning power over the Internet.” It also completely bars extradition for Internet-related crimes, requiring those convicted of a crime to be tried “in the court of their residing country.”

[…]

“The Internet is just a means to get what I really want,” he says. “My main goal is democracy. I think the Internet is one of the greatest inventions ever made. It’s the first time I see a real possibility for democracy in the world.”

It’s not entirely unexpected that the Reddit community would organize such an innovative political undertaking. Redditors were instrumental in drumming up online opposition to SOPA and PIPA, and the site was one of the first to announce a Jan. 18 blackout to protest those bills. And “pro-Internet” politicians, such as Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, have made “AMA” appearances (a public, text-based Interview) on Reddit.

Crowdsourcing legislation is not new, either. Last year, citizens of Iceland crowdsourced a new constitution. Royal credits Iceland’s experiment with providing some inspiration for FIA.